Vinh
Nguyen is an educator and cultural specialist. He is also a leader in the
Des Moines Vietnamese community, and has been instrumental in creating the
Vietnamese American Community in Iowa (VACI), which, along with several
other organizations, produces the annual Tet,(Vietnamese New Year) celebration
in Des Moines.
The head of Des Moines Public School’s English Language Learner program,
Nguyen came to Iowa as a refugee when he was 22. He was born in Saigon in
the early 1960s, and grew up in a family of 10 brothers and sisters.

With the fall of Saigon to the communists, the Vietnam War came to an end
in April 1975. Life in South Vietnam changed completely. To ensure their
son’s future, Vinh’s parents planned his escape from Vietnam
in 1981. He was smuggled out of Vietnam along with 134 other Vietnamese
on a tiny and unseaworthy boat. An oil tanker rescued the group, which was
sent to a series of refugee camps in Thailand. Vinh was eventually sent
to Galang, a remote island in Indonesia. Once his petition for refugee status
was accepted, he traveled from there to Des Moines, Iowa.

Although, Vinh struggled with his language skills and worked many different
odd jobs to survive, he was able to enroll in DMACC to learn English. He
worked for Des Moines Public Schools as a Native Language Tutor to assist
Southeast Asian refugee students. In 1993, he graduated from Drake University
with a teaching degree in mathematics, taught high school math for several
years and worked as a community advisor for the English as a Second Language
program; he now supervises a program that serves more than 3,800 students.

Nguyen has lent his skills and support in many projects and activities
in the Southeast Asian and Language Minority communities. In 2004 and 2005,
he was honored by the Iowa Council for International Understanding’s
“Passport to Prosperity Award” and the Iowa Culture and Language
Conference’s “Dan Chavez, Beyond the Horizon Award” for
his extraordinary efforts on behalf of immigrant, refugee, and non-English
speaking populations.

Besides serving the larger community, Vinh is especially dedicated to preserving
and passing his traditions on to his children. One way he does this is to
celebrate Tet.

A
major holiday for which families clean and decorate their homes, prepare
special foods, and entertain guests, Tet celebrates a break in agricultural
activities. It also marks the time when the Kitchen God journeys to Heaven
to make his annual report on household activities to the Jade Emperor. The
Vietnamese, like many other ethnic groups, follow a lunar calendar. This
means that Tet, which occurs in the 12th moon month and lasts for three
days, takes place sometime between the last 10 days of January and the middle
of February on the western calendar.

Tet involves rituals that pay homage to the ancestors. Women prepare elaborate
traditional food to be offered to the ancestors and served to family and
friends. While dishes vary by region in Vietnam, favorites include chân
giò ninh mang (pig feet with bamboo shoots), xôi gac (sticky
rice), xào hanh nhan (stir-fried almonds), nom du du (papaya salad),
and chè kho (green bean pudding) as well as lon quay (roast pork),
and bánh chung (square sticky-rice cake). Since most of Iowa’s
Vietnamese are from South Vietnam, families here also serve thit kho (stewed
pork and coconut milk) as well as dua gia (pickled green bean sprouts with
leeks, sliced carrot and turnip). Bánh tét (round-shaped glutinous
cake) and bánh tráng (rice waffle) are also on the menu.

Dragon dances and firecrackers mark special occasions in Vietnam. The dance
portrays the intricate interaction between the Dragon and Ông Ðia,
the guardian of the earth. With drums and gongs, Ông Ðia spurs
the dragon from falling asleep to greet the audience. In the old days, firecrackers
were used to expel evil spirits from villages and bring forth happiness.
Today, they commemorate old traditions and welcome visitors and the Spirit
of Spring.

Each person is considered to be one year older at the beginning of the
New Year. During Tet, Vietnamese celebrate everyone’s birthday by
offering Chúc Tuoi, best wishes for a long life to the elders, as
well as wishes for peace and prosperity to family and friends. Adults give
children red envelopes of Lì Xì (Lucky Money), which signifies
fortune, luck, and happy wishes.